Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
For polynomials, there are specialized algorithms that are more efficient and may provide all roots or all real roots; see Polynomial root-finding and Real-root isolation. Some polynomial, including all those of degree no greater than 4, can have all their roots expressed algebraically in terms of their coefficients; see Solution in radicals.
Finding the root of a linear polynomial (degree one) is easy and needs only one division: the general equation + = has solution = /. For quadratic polynomials (degree two), the quadratic formula produces a solution, but its numerical evaluation may require some care for ensuring numerical stability.
In other words, a root of P is a solution of the polynomial equation P(x) = 0 or a zero of the polynomial function defined by P. In the case of the zero polynomial, every number is a zero of the corresponding function, and the concept of root is rarely considered.
This consists in using the last computed approximate values of the root for approximating the function by a polynomial of low degree, which takes the same values at these approximate roots. Then the root of the polynomial is computed and used as a new approximate value of the root of the function, and the process is iterated.
This can be proved as follows. First, if r is a root of a polynomial with real coefficients, then its complex conjugate is also a root. So the non-real roots, if any, occur as pairs of complex conjugate roots. As a cubic polynomial has three roots (not necessarily distinct) by the fundamental theorem of algebra, at least one root must be real.
Finding the roots (zeros) of a given polynomial has been a prominent mathematical problem.. Solving linear, quadratic, cubic and quartic equations in terms of radicals and elementary arithmetic operations on the coefficients can always be done, no matter whether the roots are rational or irrational, real or complex; there are formulas that yield the required solutions.
A cubic function with real coefficients has either one or three real roots (which may not be distinct); [1] all odd-degree polynomials with real coefficients have at least one real root. The graph of a cubic function always has a single inflection point. It may have two critical points, a local minimum and a local maximum.
Such polynomials often arise in a quadratic equation + + = The solutions to this equation are called the roots and can be expressed in terms of the coefficients as the quadratic formula. Each quadratic polynomial has an associated quadratic function, whose graph is a parabola.